EA transplant to Zynga confirmed: Jeff Karp joins as marketing head

The cat has been officially removed from the bag ... by Zynga. The FarmVille creator confirmed to us that Jeff Karp (pictured), former executive VP of EA's casual games label, EA Play, has been hired as Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer at Zynga. Of course, Karp will oversee all marketing operations at the $11.5 billion company (at least), as well as international sales.

Before joining Zynga, Karp enjoyed 11 years at EA in various executive positions including chief revenue officer of the EA Games label. It was there he oversaw international marketing for properties like Battlefield, Medal of Honor, Mass Effect and more, according to Zynga's statement.

This EA-Zynga transplant joins a number of high-level traitors former EA executives. Most recently it's rumored that Mark Turmell, senior creative director at EA Sports and creator of NBA Jam, has joined Zynga. Just this June, former GM of EA-owned Easy Studios Ben Cousins joined Ngmoco to head its Sweden studio. And there are plenty more to mention.

It's unfortunate that just as the company goes full speed ahead into social and casual games with one of the biggest buys in recent gaming history that some of its most important positions have gone temporarily vacant. But it looks like The Sims Social could already be the shot in the arm EA needed--it's already attracted over 7 million players.

Do you think this will be a harmful loss for EA? With The Sims Social and whatever PopCap is up to, do you think EA could bounce back and enter the ring with Zynga? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.